Severn Bridge RR, Graham Wins, Downie Shows Early Season Form

South region champion Matt Downie (TAAP Cervelo) continues his solid start to the season, taking second place at the Severn Bridge Road Race on Sunday (4th) behind Rupert Graham (Spirit Tifosi). Downie, who won the king of the mountains classification, finished second behind Marcin Bialoblocki at the Devon Primavera race the previous weekend and surely a win cannot be too far away! Next up for Downie is the Jock Wadley Memorial in Essex next weekend

" nothing was going for the first half of the race everyone was chasing everything. Then it was hacking it down and everyone started sitting up so I put in an attack and quickly got a decent gap. I bridged over to Andy Turner (great tester) and we worked well together. I could see they were chasing behind but we kept pressing on. Rupert from Spirit Tifosi bridged across by himself and we were all working well together on the last lap we had well over 2 mins 30 seconds on the main bunch and about 50 seconds on some chasers. On the last climb Rupert went hard I followed, Andy got dropped then my legs just gave up and Rupert went on to win it and I crossed for second"

Provisional Result
78 Miles Henbury Circuit, Avon, 04/03/18

1 Rupert Graham Spirit Tifosi Racing Team
2 Matthew Downie TAAP Cervelo
3 Andrew Turner Team KTM UK
4 Christopher Rothwell BW Cycling
5 Joshua Price Team Backstedt/Hotchillee
6 Louis Szymanski Cycling Sheffield Giant Sheffield
7 Matt Langworthy Saint Piran
8 Mitchell Webber Halo Sports Cycling Team
9 Alex Fanshawe Saint Piran
10 Jack Waller Spirit Tifosi Racing Team
11 Jake Hales Spirit Tifosi Racing Team
12 Douglas Coleman Spirit Tifosi Racing Team
13 Brecon Burnett Cardiff Ajax CC
14 Ben Lockett Tri UK
15 Dante Carpenter Morvelo Basso
16 Alexander Cross VCEquipe/FlixOralHygiene/Propulse
17 David Middleton Cardiff Ajax CC
18 Lee Frost Tri UK
19 Red Walters Sotonia CC
20 Daniel Pullen Cycling Sheffield Giant Sheffield
21 Cameron Jeffers Saint Piran
22 James Phillips Bristol RC
23 George Kimber Team PB Performance
24 Andrew Kirby VC St Raphael
25 Oliver Maxwell Richardsons-Trek RT
26 Andrew Critchlow WyndyMilla
27 Joe Charley Team PB Performance
28 Luke Barfoot Tri UK
29 Samuel Tillett Wales Racing Academy
30 Sean Townsend VCEquipe/FlixOralHygiene/Propulse
31 Joseph Rees Cardiff Ajax CC
32 Richard Harris Cwmcarn Paragon Cycle Club
33 George Bazley Bristol RC
34 David Kovacs Team KTM UK
35 Marcin Bialoblocki Steele Davis Via Roma RT
36 Sebastian Lewis VCEquipe/FlixOralHygiene/Propulse
37 Charlie Passfield Spirit Tifosi Racing Team
38 Joe Swinnerton Swinnerton Cycles
39 Ryan Watkins Cardiff Ajax CC
40 Tom Duncan WORX Factory Racing

78 Miles Henbury Circuit, Avon, 04/03/18